Former Apple Employee: 'I Think Tim Cook is a Lightweight'

Posted November 9, 2012 at 2:16am by iClarified | Please help us and submit a translation by clicking here | 15107 views

David Sobotta, a former Apple sales executive from 1984 to 2004, slams Tim Cook in an interview with ReadWriteWeb.

Sobotta recently published 'The Pomme Company', a memoir of his time as director of Apple's federal sales group. During that time Tim Cook ran operations and became executive vice president of worldwide sales.

"Well, for starters, Cook is not a people person," Sobotta writes. "He certainly will not stand behind someone if the going gets rough. He is not that kind of guy. I sense no personal loyalty in him, and I suspect employees already understand that.

Referring to Cook and technology, Sobotta says,

"Technology-wise, I think Tim Cook is a lightweight. I never felt passion for technology from Tim like I did from Steve and some of the great engineers."

Sobotta also felt as though Tim was not a leader.

"I would expect that Tim is having a hard time herding the chickens. From what I saw of him, he was something of a loner. He is not a warm guy nor is he the type to go wandering the halls or Caffe Mac to find out what is happening. His preference is to tinker with spreadsheets and numbers. He is not a natural leader. He's a manager."

Cook has been under increased scrutiny following an executive shakeup that saw Scott Forstall and John Browett leave their posts at Apple.

There is no such thing as a perfect person to run the company, that's why you need a team to run the company. Yes, Tim might not be the same as Steve, but think about it this way. If Steve were to go his way of running the company without valuable advice from Tim, would Apple be better (and rich) than it is today? Similarly, I believe Tim knows he is not as innovative as Steve, so I hope that he trust the Engineers and designers with more creative freedom in coming up with what new toys. However, there's something that disturbs me, in that he's not a people person. I wonder if it's true, cuz the reason he sacked Scott Forstell is simply because he's backing Jony Ive and Bobs Mansfield, isn't it?

I have a feeling that the other reason he fired Forstall, is because he is the only other guy who could be Apple's CEO, as he was very close to Steve, besides besides being the heart and lungs of iOS and Mac OSX, i.e, the heart and lungs of Apple.

What about if he's simply applying the gay's way of managing people, doing business. There are many gays around, much more than anywhere else in SFO bay... who knows.
Buckle your pants tighly and never lace your shoes at work then, and everything might be alright...
Just kidding, but just in case... watch your butty, you californians.... ^.^